


Illusion, dissolving

by alivedovedoeat



Category: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, chess n' gigi: ocarina of time randomizer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27414763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alivedovedoeat/pseuds/alivedovedoeat
Summary: He thinks of endless fields, afternoons of bug-catching, time which flows forwards and back, the hours devoted to one leap over a fire. Gengy’s life had asked nothing of him but a boundless reserve of patience.Gengy's quest comes to an end.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Illusion, dissolving

“Thank you, Gengy,” says the girl he found in the tower. She says much more after this, words which Gengy is no closer to understanding now then when he set out. But he is not afraid; many people, now, have said many strange things to him. He waits for it to pass.

“Gengy,” she says, “give the ocarina to me.” She holds her hand out, and he rejects the impulse to shrink back. If he shows weakness now, she’ll be emboldened to take it from him. The thought of having to buy another, and the size of the wallet he might need for it, nearly stops him. But she is a girl; it’s not worth the risk. He sets it in her hand.

When she puts her lips to it without wiping the mouthpiece, Gengy is certain all his fears are correct. But the song she plays is familiar. He had found the notes carved on a sarcophagus in the crypt under Kakariko. How many experiences did they share, ones he had never considered? He wonders if she descended the village well for the same reasons he had, if she had felt the same dread under the gaze of a half-dozen townspeople.

A ring of light forms around him, but he is not afraid. Magic, though he still thinks of himself as a swordsman, has helped him burn sticks and open doors. He trusts it, and allows six years and an ineffable sense of guyness to flow out from him.

When he is a child again, he thinks of the girl he’d met the day he walked his chicken on the castle grounds. She had handed him a slip of paper covered in marks, and kept turning to face him as he stepped out of her line of sight, until he had to dive into a fountain to avoid it. Fear and petulance had mingled; he’d hoped for another skulltula token, not paper she’d already drawn something on. But it was, he now realizes, the best gift she could offer, and he had been rude to her.

He walks to the courtyard she lives in, where she must feel terribly exposed. He resolves to tell her about the caves and ruins he’s found, the narrow, dim places in which she could shelter. She turns to face him, but his resolve holds this time, and he does not move. He wants to say something to her. He wants to ask her if she’ll play Mario Kart 64.

He has no idea who Mario is, or why he lets people play with his sixty-four carts, but the words are nevertheless there. He hesitates, and then hears a six-note tune. There is no obvious source, and on hearing it, he feels the same sense of dread he felt in the Spirit Temple. He thinks of cleaning himself, which he has never been made to do, and waking before he is ready. He thinks of endless fields, bug-catching, time which flows forwards and back, the hours devoted to one leap over a fire. Gengy’s life had asked nothing of him but a boundless reserve of patience.

The same six notes sound a second time, and a third. Gengy reaches for the snooze button on his clock, and the animatronic scarecrow attached to its base wriggles and plays the alarm in one final soundfont. His mom had promised to change the song to the one from the Earthbound hack he’d found last Halloween, the one he played all in one night without changing out of his bone costume. Thus far, she hadn’t been able to make the time.

As Gengy sits up, rubbing his eyes with a hand uncharacteristically clean from his Sunday bath, his mom enters the room.

“Hey, kid,” she says. “How’d you sleep?”

“Okay,” he says.

“You smell the bacon? Hope you didn’t have the dream about your friend turning into a pig again.”

Gengy shakes his head. “This time I just ran around a lot, and looked for things.”

“That’s nice,” she says, opening his curtain. “Well. Looks like your summer vacation is over.”

“Yeah.” He stares into his lap.

“Hey,” she says. “Would you feel better if we went out for frozen yogurt tonight?”

He nods, but doesn’t raise his head.

Gengy’s mom takes something from the top of his wardrobe, higher than he can reach. Then she sits beside him on the bed and puts her hand on his shoulder.

“Hey,” she says. “I know your mom doesn’t like you wearing these all the time, especially at school. And she has a point; she doesn’t want you to get hurt, and I’m sure it’s hard to keep your balance in them. But I think you can handle it, and I think they make you happy.” She thrusts her hand forward. “I want you to wear them.”

She smiles, and hands Gengy the wheels for his Heelys.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to the three people who might get the injokes


End file.
